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I received this comment from a twenty-year-old Renton MySpace user named Wendy:
“We should try and get rid of and stop the graffiti around renton, renton has a lot of potential and gets ruined by that sh*t they call “art” they might have talent but no respect, aaa probably not too much we could do huh?”
The city is working on some ideas to improve the graffiti situation. But I would like to hear your ideas.
Not just grafiti….
Coporate grafitti is just as bad. For example – please enforce the sign ordinacnes – on Park avenue at the north 500 to 600 block, every one of the car shops has multiple “temporary” signs that have been up for years.
Slumlord Grafiti – Most of the Section 8 houses around here look like hell. Get the Renton Housing Authority to do their job. And while I’m in a pissy mood – get the Renton school district to paint their buildings -they’re the worst of the bunch.
graffiti
I think we need to make it clear that the problems we are having in Renton are not graffiti, but in fact vandalism. True graffiti is created by talented kids who need an outlet to express their art. Perhaps provide some blank walls by the skate park which are clearly designated as graffiti areas. I don’t know if this will help with the vandalism. But it would help the kids who want to share their art. A lot of other city’s have art walls near or in their skate park (Redmond). There the art piece changes regularly, maybe monthly.
Re: graffiti
Check the definition of graffiti:
: to draw graffiti on : to deface with graffiti
: usu. unauthorized writing or drawing on a public surface
And the definition of deface:
: to mar the appearance of : injure by effacing significant details
Based on those definitions, I’d say it’s graffiti. Art is something entirely different. What I’m seeing is graffiti.
Re: graffiti
Depends on your art education I’m afraid. If the world were just black and white then your dictionary explanation applies. There is nothing to argue about here – I agree the scribbles are awful and tacky. Here is an excerpt from the Urban Dictionary to help you identify what the words true meaning in the art world is:
1. GRAFFITI
573 up, 193 down
An element of the Hip Hop culture misinterpreted and misrepresented by the mainstream media, and most especially hated by affluent (usually white) businessmen who don’t understand the roots or meaning of the writing on the walls.
Contrary to popular belief, Graff is NOT any of the following: writing on houses of worship, people’s houses in general, other writer’s names, or tombstones. The aforementioned need not be identified with bus, train, subway and wall burners. That’s REAL graffiti, the visual aspect of Hip Hop accompanied by the physical (breakdance), verbal (emceeing), and rhythmic (turntablism).
Since Graffiti is an element in Hip Hop just as important as DJing, MCing and Breaking, any assault on Graffiti (i.e., calling it “vandalism”, “not art”, etc.) should be viewed as an assault on Hip Hop altogether.
Re: graffiti
Last time I checked, they are not using the urban dictionary in our schools. Oh wait, maybe they are.
By the “Urban Dictionary” we don’t have a graffiti problem, we have a “tagging” problem.
Still the same problem regardless of the name.
We really need to tackle the run-down appearances of some of the building ’round here at the same time.
Bad paint looks bad regardless if it’s tagging/graffitti or just the Renton school district being lazy and not painting their buildings in fifteen years.
pretty much impossible to stop